One of Oscar Wilde’s lesser plays, they’ve called it. However, our production team managed to wrestle it into quite a good show. Lord Illingworth, the witty raconteur, finds himself suddenly faced with a woman with whom he had a ruinous adultery and their son, whom he has meanwhile unbeknownst taken as his secretary. High Victorian drama ensues.
There is a scene in the play where the young American girl has been made to entertain the others with her violin in the next room, offstage. This leaves two characters on stage to have a deep, difficult discussion, and the director and I decided to counterpoint this discussion with the violin (played with a few mistakes) in the other room. A sample of this is below.
The director and I also brought sound and the action together in the scene changes, underscore for the end of one scene would cover the change and lead into the top of the following scene. This required timing and quite a bit of editing, especially as the mood dramatically shifts between the third and fourth scenes. I would post a bit here, but it really doesn’t work without the action. Ahh, live theatre. Pictures instead!
Lisa Woods as Mrs. Allonby and James Noel Hoban as Lord Illingworth in Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance. Photo by Rene Minnis.
A Woman of No Importance at the Theater at Monmouth. Photo by Rene Minnis
Denise Cormier as Mrs. Arbuthnot and Leighton Samuels as Gerald in A Woman of No Importance. Photo by Rene Minnis.
A play by Oscar Wilde
Directed by Will Rhys
Set Designer: Michael Reidy
Costume Designer: Caitlin Cisek
Lighting Designer: Cecilia Durbin
Stage Managers: Jeff Meyers, Melissa A. Nathan